10 Indian Insect Pests, • [Vol. I. 



Rhopalocertty o£ the order Lepidoptera, This butterfly is very widely- 

 spread, occurring throughout India except the desert tracts^ and in 

 Ceylon. The butterfly expands about an inch and three quarters, is of 

 a glossy brown colour on the upper side, the fore wing witli a pair of con- 

 joined spots at the end of the discoidal cell, and a series of six spots curv- 

 ing round the middle of the wing (all these spots are pale yellow). 

 The under side of the forewing is nearly similarly marked ; but the hind 

 wing, which is unspotted on the upper side, has about six small round 

 black spots in the middle of the wing. The opposite sexes are almost 

 exactly alike. 



The earlier stages of this insect have not hitherto been published. I 

 Life history. \\2iYQ repeatedly bred it (often from the Qg^) in 



Calcutta, where it feeds on tbe date palm, I was 

 not previously aware, till reading the Tehsildar's report, that it had any 

 other food plant. He says it only eats young paddy in the larval state ; 

 I rather doubt this, as if it will eat the particularly fibrous, dry, tough, 

 and hard leaves of the date, surely it will eat too the older paddy leaves, 

 which cannot compare in hardness to the date leaves at all ages. 

 According to my observations the egg is laid singly on the upper side 

 of the leaves of date palms, generally near the base of each subdivision 

 or frond of the leaf. It is large, very hard, dome- shaped, widest at the 

 base, rapidly decreasing in width towards the apex, much wider than high 

 the usual crater-like depression at the top (micropyle), from the edges of 

 which proceed coarse ribs varying in number from twelve to fifteen, the 

 usual number being fourteen; colour French-grey, just before the young 

 larva emerges, turning to very delicate pale pink. Larva at first stage dull 

 red throughout. When full-fed it measures just an inch in length when 

 at rest; the body smooth, pale bluish-green, the segments denoted by 

 pale yellowish lines and but slightly constricted, the whole surface covered 

 with minute dark green spots, and crossed, especially at the constrictions 

 dividing the segments, by fine depressed lines ; a dark green dorsal line, 

 the spiracles black. The body is nearly cylindrical, but tapers towards 

 both ends, the anal segment flattened anteriorly. The head-case is hard 

 and rough, covered with fine depressions, a double pale line across the 

 crown and one at each side, the rest dark brown. Legs and under side 

 of body pale green. The larva, when large enough, rolls up a leaf or else 

 joins together two or three leaves, closing the edges by silk threads, but 

 leaving an opening at each end. When quite small, it makes a shelter 

 of a part of a leaf only. It comes out only to eat, as far as I have 

 observed, and retreats into its shelter when its meal is over or if fright- 

 ened, either backwards or forwards with equal celerity. The pupa is 

 enclosed in a rolled-up leaf, the inside of which is lined with soft silk, 

 out of which flies when opened a quantity of fine white waxy powder with 

 which the pupa is thickly covered. The pupa is pale yellowish green, 



